NEW YORK (AP) — Reese Witherspoon’s My first novel for adults began with the kind of inspiration that seasoned novelists know all too well: a character who won’t leave her alone.
A military doctor who decides to perform plastic surgery on a mysterious client.
“I’ve never had an idea for a character in my life. She kind of lives in my head, and once that happened, I knew I had to do something about it,” co-author Witherspoon said this week. harlan coben He spoke in a conference room at Apple’s Soho store in downtown Manhattan, just before being interviewed for his next podcast, Bookmark.
“So I called Harlan.”
The novel is The piece, which has just been published, is called “Gone Before Goodbye.” The woman in Witherspoon’s mind became Maggie McCabe, an Army combat surgeon. A professional setback leads her to accept a well-paying but questionable orthopedic job. The job takes her everywhere from Russia to Dubai and becomes embroiled in a puzzle of murder, multiple identities, and strange coincidences. “Gone Before Goodbye” was started by Witherspoon, but includes the kind of multi-layered plotline and haunting backstory familiar to many Coben readers.
The careers of Witherspoon, 49, and Corben, 63, have paralleled each other for decades. She is an Oscar-winning actor and producer whose credits include Walk the Line, Legally Blonde and The Morning Show, and he is a million-selling author of crime novels including Tell No One, Fool Me Once and No Second Chance. But their interests also overlap. Witherspoon directs an influential book club and is one of Hollywood’s most prominent reading and literacy advocates, and Corben has seen many of his books adapted for film and television.
Witherspoon said the two met at a conference about nine years ago and she has been a longtime fan of his work. After deciding to write the novel, she contacted Corben, who had never worked with a co-author.
“I was wary of the idea of collaboration. I’m just not that kind of guy,” he said. “But then something went wrong when she told me the idea and started talking about private doctors illegally visiting and performing surgeries on very rich people. And it’s like, it’s up my alley, but it’s not. And I loved it. When you have an idea, there’s like a hook in your brain, and all these ideas kind of turn into quick-fire.”
Maggie McCabe might seem like a wonderfully challenging role for an actor like Reese Witherspoon. And “Gone Before Goodbye” has a distinct cinematic scope, with its mix of exotic locales, close-knit escape games, and deadly showdowns. However, the rights have not yet been sold, and both authors have stated that, for now, they want the book to be enjoyed as a book. Corben explained that they were working with a few ground rules. In other words, there were no other writers but ourselves, and we didn’t think about anything other than the project at hand.
“No matter how many adaptations you’ve made of your own books, the biggest kiss of death is writing a novel thinking, ‘Oh, this would make a really good movie.'”
In a recent interview, Witherspoon and Coben also talked about their collaborative process, Witherspoon’s family background, and what they’ve learned from each other.
Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
AP: How did the writing process work for this piece? Did you send manuscripts to each other?
Witherspoon: We’re always communicating. text message.
Corben: Email. We only meet in person about once every two or three weeks.
Witherspoon: We could sit for hours and just explain the story and make sure we understood each character’s backstory so we could dig into future plotlines. The construction process was really interesting.
Corben: I warned her that novels are like sausages. You may like the last taste. You probably don’t want to see how it was made. So we got really into the weeds about that.
AP: Do you (Witherspoon) feel like you know enough about it to write your own novel?
Witherspoon: I know something I don’t know. And when you partner with a master who has done it for over 10,000 hours and has 37, 38 books, I think there’s a reason why I wanted to work with someone so skilled at that craft. Because he actually had the patience to include me in his process.
I was very confident in building the character. I had as much confidence in this character as Tracy Flick (Election) or Elle Woods (Legally Blonde). For me, this character was so clear, and the fact that he taught us how to build this together and build a world around the character was a real learning experience for me.
AP: What was the biggest adjustment for you (Corben) working with other writers?
Corben: Reese took over the part of my brain that sometimes talks to itself. Talk to Reese instead. Sometimes I would tease her. Because as we talked, there were times when it seemed like she was becoming Maggie because of her acting background and her ability to create characters. Her voice will change a little. This is what I thought to myself.
AP: Was there an event that inspired this book?
Witherspoon: Not really. I drew a lot of inspiration from my father, who was a military doctor, and my mother, who was a military nurse. So they discussed the surgery in the evening. And my father worked right after Vietnam. So he was watching soldiers coming back from Vietnam. He was seeing a patient after much conflict. And he came home and told me really graphic stories about surgeries and trauma surgeries and things he had seen.
I really respect people in the military and the medical community. And I’m also very interested in what drives people to want to be that person.
Corben: Like it or not, she’s a novelist (now).
AP: Will you (Corben) be lonely the next time you write your own book?
Corben: Yes, that’s right. It’s going to be strange.
Witherspoon: Oh, here we go. Call a friend.
Corben: I’ll call Reese. “Honey, I need help.”
